Traffic safety conference ends with strategic plan

Molly Ball

Friday, June 18, 2004 | 9:38 a.m.

As a traffic engineer, Chuck Reider has always known that the curbs of a roundabout are low enough for a fire truck to drive over as it wails through traffic.

But until Thursday, the firefighters driving the trucks didn't know that -- they were whipping around the circle with the rest of the traffic, losing precious time, Reider, the principal safety engineer for the Nevada Department of Transportation, said. The problem was that emergency personnel just never have occasion to talk to engineers, he said.

But this week, they did. Thursday was the last day of an unprecedented two-day summit of state and local officials involved in all aspects of traffic safety.

They're known as the four E's: engineering, education, enforcement and emergency response. Too often, the first E doesn't know what the second E is doing.

The conference marked the drafting of the state's first ever Comprehensive Strategic Highway Safety Plan, a set of specific goals that resulted from the meeting's brainstorming sessions. The most important result of the sessions was increased communication among everyone involved at all levels of traffic safety in Nevada, said Susan Martinovich, the department's deputy director.

"All of the entities, all of the disciplines, they're each excellent at their own area," she said. "But we're going at it in parts. If we go at it as a whole, we can make a big difference."

For example, she said, one common cause of highway fatalities in Nevada is drivers who run off the road. An engineer might respond by adding rumble strips to the side of the road or a flat shoulder to prevent rollovers.

A law enforcement official might consider targeting high-crash locations with speed traps, to prevent drivers from going too fast. Someone involved in education might want to air public-service announcements encouraging people not to drive when they're tired. And emergency personnel would study the crashes to see how they might most effectively save the lives of people who run off the road.

If they all work together, there is a much better chance they'll make progress, Martinovich said.

Nevada's traffic fatality rate, 2.1 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, is far above the national average of 1.5. Last year the state averaged more than one death per day.

Martinovich said the agencies would not get extra money to implement their ideas, but would use improved communication to target resources more effectively.

Reider said an important next step would be involving planning officials in the talks, so that new roads could be built more safely. In Washoe County, he said, a police sergeant was asked to consult on a planned road.

"It was a six-lane road, straight, and it was supposed to be 35 mph," Reider said. "(The sergeant) said, 'If you build something like that, people are going to go 60."'